Baked yeast doughnuts are easier to make than you might think. This recipe uses wholemeal spelt flour to keep them light and fluffy. Once baked, the doughnuts are rolled in lightly spiced sugar. But be warned, they’re so delicious it’s impossible to stop at one.
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Doughnuts, or donuts if you’re in the US, are a firm favourite with just about everybody. As they’re mostly fried in deep fat, however, they’re not the healthiest of snacks. They’re also not that easy to make at home if you’re averse to deep fat frying.
Baking doughnuts as an alternative to frying is the answer. They’re much easier to make and although I’ve coated mine with butter and sugar, they’re less unhealthy too. I’ve used a minimal amount of both – just enough to give some sweetness and a good flavour. Each ring doughnut contains approximately 140 calories, which doesn’t seem a lot for a doughnut.
I have another recipe for baked doughnuts here on Tin and Thyme. And they’re really good. But they’re made with baking powder, not yeast, so they don’t really have the right doughnutty texture.
For those of you who are looking for something a bit more authentic, these wholemeal spelt baked yeast ring doughnuts are a real corker.
Baked Yeast Doughnuts
These homemade doughnuts are easier to make than most, for several reasons:
- As stated above, they’re baked not deep fried, meaning no messy oil to dispose of and no waste either.
- There’s only one knead and prove involved, not two.
- Because I use wholemeal spelt flour, you only need to knead the dough for about five minutes. Conventional flours generally require a good ten minutes. This is particularly useful if you knead by hand.
Wholemeal spelt flour also helps to keep the doughnuts light and fluffy. I usually sieve the flour though so I can discard any particularly large or coarse pieces of bran. These can spoil the lovely fluffy mouthfeel and may also prevent the dough from rising as successfully.
You can use ordinary wholemeal flour or a mix of half wholemeal and half plain white, but the result will be slightly different.
When you roll the dough into sausage shapes to place in the moulds, you don’t need to flour the work surface. Just give a light coating of oil instead. Dry doughnuts are probably not what you’re after and too much flour will dry them out.
Lay them in the moulds and roughly pinch the ends together. Many of the imperfections will disappear once the dough is risen and baked.
Although there’s not a lot of hands-on time required, you’ll need to allow about an hour for the dough to prove and double in size. They only take fifteen minutes to bake.
Once the doughnuts are out of the oven, push them out of the moulds onto a wire rack. Coat them in butter and sugar as detailed below.
These wholemeal spelt doughnuts are at their absolute best whilst they’re still warm from the oven. But it’s very hard to stop at just one. They will keep for a couple of days, but as with most doughnuts, the fresher the better.
Sugar Coated Doughnuts
Doughnut dough has very little sugar in it, so unless you fill your doughnuts with jam, ice them or coat them with sugar, you won’t be getting a particularly sweet treat. Good thing, bad thing, you choose.
I prefer a dusting of sugar, but not an all out drenching. We found these sugared ring doughnut to be about right. Sweet enough to satisfy decadent cravings, but not so overloaded that a trip to hospital will ensue.
To coat the doughnuts, you first need to melt some butter. Do this whilst the doughnuts are baking. At the same time stir the sugar and spice together in a bowl.
Brush the butter over the doughnuts as soon as you can after they come out of the oven. Though do be careful not to burn your hands. Once you’ve coated a doughnut push it into the bowl of sugar. Turn it over then do the same on the other side. Give it a good shake, then place on a wire rack to cool. Repeat until all the doughnuts have a good dusting of spiced sugar.
What’s the Right Milk Temperature for Yeast Activation?
To activate yeast and get your dough to prove properly, the milk needs to be tepid or lukewarm. That is to say, slightly above body temperature. 38C/100F is ideal. However, since most of us don’t have a thermometer to hand, just stick a clean finger into the milk. If it feels slightly warm it’s ready to go. But i it feels hot, allow it to cool before using.
When you add milk, or any other liquid, that’s too hot to yeast, it will kill it. So it’s better to err on the cool side of caution.
Don’t Have a Doughnut Mould?
You don’t need a doughnut mould or pan to make these baked doughnuts, but it makes life a lot easier if you do. Without it, you’ll need a rolling pin and cutters.
It’s well worth investing in some silicone doughnut moulds. They’re cheap, will last many years and they make doughnut baking so much easier. Mine came from MoldyFun, but you can also get a three pack donut baking pan* on Amazon.
This recipe makes the perfect quantity of dough for twelve doughnut holes.
However, if you don’t have any moulds, you can roll the dough out to just over one centimetre (half an inch) in thickness. Stamp out six-seven centimetre (three inches) large circles, then stamp out smaller circles in the middle of the larger ones. Place on a lined baking tray and follow the instructions as per the recipe.
How To Tell When Baked Yeast Doughnuts Are Done
You know the doughnuts are done when they’re golden in colour and if you tap one on the bottom it sounds hollow inside. But for doughnuts, it’s better to err on the side of caution. If you over bake them, they’ll be dry and not nearly as pleasant to eat.
What Is Pumpkin Spice?
Pumpkin spice is a classic mix of sweet spices that Americans use to make pumpkin pie. Expect to find, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, though allspice is sometimes used too. The equivalent here in the UK is mixed spice.
I used pumpkin spice for these doughnuts, but you can use whatever spice grabs your fancy, or none at all. Cinnamon is delicious of course and mixed spice works well too. But if you fancy making your own pumpkin spice mix, this is how you do it.
Combine two teaspoons of ground cinnamon with one of ginger, half of ground nutmeg and a quarter of ground cloves.
Other Sweet Yeast Recipes You Might Like
- Chocolate babka bundt
- Mincemeat buns
- Saffron buns (vegan)
- Strasbourg kouglof
- Triple chocolate bread
- Vegetarian lardy cakes
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these wholemeal spelt doughnuts, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like more recipes made with wholemeal spelt flour, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Baked Yeast Doughnuts. PIN IT.
Baked Yeast Doughnuts – The Recipe
Baked Yeast Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnuts
- 8 g fresh yeast or 3 ½ g active dried yeast
- 25 g unsalted butter
- 25 g golden caster sugar
- 100 ml milk
- 250 g wholemeal spelt flour can use ordinary wholemeal flour or a mix of half wholemeal and half white
- 1 egg
Sugar Coating
- 25 g unsalted butter – melted
- 60 g caster sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix or sweet spice (s) of your choice
Instructions
Doughnuts
- Warm the milk in a small pan until it’s tepid. Pour it into a large mixing bowl or bowl of your food mixer, add the yeast and 1 tsp of the sugar. Stir until the yeast is dissolved. Cover and leave for ten minutes or until the milk has turned frothy.8 g fresh yeast or 3 ½ g active dried yeast, 100 ml milk
- Whilst you're waiting, melt the butter in the same pan you used for the milk. Butter or oil your doughnut moulds and place on a baking tray.25 g unsalted butter
- Add the melted butter and remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir by hand or use a food mixer until the mixture comes together to form a dough. Knead for five minutes.25 g golden caster sugar, 250 g wholemeal spelt flour, 1 egg
- Cut the dough into twelve evenly sized pieces. Lightly oil your work surface then roll each piece into a string long enough to fit around each doughnut hole mould.
- Lay them in the moulds and pinch the ends together so that the dough rounds are more or less even.
- Cover with a tea towel or large plastic bag and leave to rise until doubled in size. This usually takes about an hour, but could be a bit less or a bit more depending on the state of your flour, how active the yeast is and how warm the room is.
- When the doughnuts look as though they're nearly there, preheat the oven to 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4).
- Remove the tea towel or plastic covering and bake in the top part of the oven for fifteen minutes. You know the doughnuts are done when they're golden in colour and if you tap one on the bottom it sounds hollow inside. But for doughnuts, it's better to err on the side of caution. If you overbake them they will be dry and not nearly as pleasant to eat.
Sugar Coating
- Whilst the doughnuts are baking melt the butter in a small pan over a gently heat. Mix the sugar and spice together in a large shallow bowl.25 g unsalted butter – melted, 60 g caster sugar, 1 tsp pumpkin spice mix
- Turn the doughnuts out of the moulds whilst hot and immediately brush each one with the melted butter then dunk in the sugar bowl, turning them over when one side is done.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing this recipe for baked yeast doughnuts with A Strong Coffee for #CookBlogShare.
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James L says
Made these tonight and they turned out really well!
I had to look up all of the weight conversions to cups and teaspoons as I don’t have a kitchen scale, but it worked out.
I also kneaded a bit of butter (about 1/8 cup) into my dough, added about 1/2 tsp salt, and reduced the sugar in the dough by about 25% (will probably reduce by half next time).
Also, I didn’t have a doughnut pan so I rolled out the dough and cut in circles with a cup, like biscuits. I usually make deep-fried doughnuts and like to stuff them with pudding, so thats what I plan to do with these.
Thank you for this recipe! I don’t think I’ll bother deep frying doughnuts now that I’ve found this baked recipe which is honestly just as good 😀
Choclette says
Oh goodness, I’ve just looked at the recipe and it isn’t obvious that you’re meant to add the melted butter to the dough. I will amend to make it clearer. I’m glad it worked out for you anyway.
I normally have the cup conversions (though I can’t guarantee how exact they are), I’ll add those in too.
Thanks for your feedback.
Rohit Gangwani says
Just made, i’m disappointed. tastes weird. lacks something.
Choclette says
I’m sorry to hear they didn’t turn out as well as you expected. It may have something to do with the yeast you used or the spices.
Joey says
isn’t it proof the donuts, not prove?
Choclette says
Hi Joey, thanks for picking up on this. Prove is correct though. I’m guessing it’s an English/American spelling difference. We say prove here in the UK.
Jade says
Hi there:)
Can I substitute out the wholemeal flour for plain flour?
Choclette says
Hi Jade. I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Plain flour doesn’t generally absorb as much water as wholemeal, so it might be worth using slightly less liquid. But don’t make them too dry either or they won’t have such a nice structure. You’ll also need to knead the dough for a little longer. Let me know how they turn out.
clare says
These look so amazing – so good
Choclette says
Thank you, they are indeed very good.
Chloe Edges says
These look delicious Choclette! I need to keep my eye out for some doughnut tins!
Choclette says
Definitely worth investing in Chloe. They make the job of doughnut making an awful lot easier.
Cat | Curly's Cooking says
These look so delicious! The flavours are perfect! I will have to give baked doughnuts with yeast a try!
Choclette says
Definitely worth a try Cat. I’ve become rather a fan of pumpkin spice.
Louise says
These look great – I have always fancied making doughnuts but have not been brave enough! Thanks for sharing #cookblogshare
Choclette says
Do give them a go, they’re really not difficult to make and so delicious.
Lesley says
I just love doughnuts and you’ve tossed yours in pumpkin spiced sugar which is pretty much perfection for me. What a great recipe.
Choclette says
Thanks Lesley. I’ve been using pumpkin spice quite a lot recently. It’s such a lovely mix.
angiesrecipes says
They look wonderful and just as tempting as the fried one!
angiesrecipes
Choclette says
They really are just as delicious Angie.